1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to hulls and, more specifically, to a hull design that is for use as a cruising vessel in protected shallow and deep water and for open ocean use as a motor craft, a sailing vessel and a platform by which the swells of the open ocean can be safely and profitably surfed for long duration and distances.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are other hull designs for ships and while these hull designs may be suitable for the purposes for which they were designed, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention, as hereinafter described.
No Prior Art in the patent records was found that uses the combination of design features recorded herein. Nor was any data found in any periodical or technical publication in the public domain of such art concerning the overall design compositions of this sailing/surfing hull; nor features such as angled, straight sides that allow a sailboat to sail sharper to the wind, or introducing air under the hull by means of air nozzles and venturis under the hull to make it plane quicker and to decrease hull friction with the water to a very low factor while planing or surfing a slope of swell.
The objectives of this hull design are unique in the history of sailing, and surfing, worldwide. For example, the draft of a hull 50 feet long at the water line 123 is near 11 inches. The draft, including the fins of the steering rotors, would be less than 20 inches. The beam to length ratio is larger than all mono-hull sailing vessels over 30 feet in length. The bows are unique for modern sailing vessels and for surfing vessels. The stern is unique in that the girth of the beam is found at the extremity of the stern.
The ratio between maximum sail carried and active lateral resistance is the largest known. A vessel surfing for very long duration while carrying sail is unknown in history as well. The combination of a sailboat under sail using stern trim surfaces is new. There simply has never been anything like it.
Trim tabs are usually found on the stern of motorboats. When the hull is planing on the water at high speed these trim tabs are used to stabilize and adjust the planing characteristics of the planing hull. These trim surfaces are generally operated through electrical, pneumatic or hydraulic apparatus 132 as is done herein. The trim surfaces, see FIG. 4 item 52, used on this invention are much larger—really, large enough to force the stern up to the surface when the trim surfaces are sufficiently extended as the craft moves at planing speed through the water; in a similar manner as the angle of attack with the incoming air on the underside of an airplane wing helps to give the wing lift in general flight.
In regards to the prior art use of ballast, see FIG. 1 item 103, to counterbalance the pressure of the sails, the standard way to counterbalance the pressure of the sails is to have ballast weight in lead, concrete, steel, or any other heavy material in the bottom of the hull, or bolted underneath the keel to form a weighted fin keel, see FIG. 1 item 102. Racing vessels also depend on the weight of the crew to counterbalance the heeling forces of the sailing vessel to carry more sail. Some performance vessels use on-board water ballast to counterbalance the pressure of the wind in the sails. The water ballast is then pumped from side to side and, sometimes, a little of the water ballast is pumped from the forward area to the stern area and visa versa to control trim.
The use of water ballast taken in from the leeside into water ballast bucket arrays, see FIG. 4 item 41, 42 and FIG. 12, as part of a tacking maneuver as is done in this design has never been used.
In regards to the prior art and the present invention's use of venturis to generate air bubbles under the hull, currently present and prior art venturi grooves—not slots—are encountered in the bottom of the latest designs of very high speed mono-hull and catamaran motor boats to draw air from the sides of the hull under the hull. The venturi grooves on powerboats only have a hole-type access of air for the entire length of the groove. These grooves are used exclusively on motorboats because these have been able to attain the high speed necessary to cause the venturis to operate and have the appropriate shape to their bottoms to have such venturi grooves. The slots employed in this invention are of a different class as they draw air from within the hull rather than from alongside the hull and in that this invention uses long slots traversing the width of the hull. The other difference in the use of venturis in this hull is that the airflow to the venturis can be controlled through a manifold valve, FIG. 8 item 82, so that one can have a full sheet of air under the hull or to have little air under the hull.
In regards to the prior art and the present invention's use of cladding copper, monel—a metal alloy containing copper—or any other material that permanently resists marine growth to under water outside surfaces, the present invention uses such metal cladding on the outside underwater part of the hull to inhibit speed-crippling marine growth. In prior art, sailing vessels used in warfare had their bottoms covered in plates of copper to prevent growth so as to keep them in optimum operating conditions at all times; and one encounters such copper sheeting now and then on other vessels.
The present invention probably will use 0.015 to 0.032 inch thick copper, monel sheet or sheets of any other durable, permanently-acting, anti-marine growth material for the same purpose.
This laminate process is unique. Thickness of the anti-growth substance sheet will be determined by availability of the thicknesses and widths of such sheets, on what thickness can most easily be applied, and on the thickness determined by actual galvanic tests in seawater of combinations of copper, aluminum, bronze, stainless steel, tin and zinc used in the production of the actual hull. In any case, in this hull design for which patent is applied herein, the combination of design features including also the sheet cladding of the bottom to obtain the design objectives are unique. It is the uniqueness of the features combined in this design on which this application rests.
A German design for a motor research ship has its widest beam also at the stern but for a very different purpose. Since the ship is a motor ship its sides are not angled to gain an advantage while under sail or while surfing a swell or to obtain greater stability and resistance-limiting angled sides with respect to the incoming water flow. Its wide stern was necessary to create a quiet wake so that scientific sensor arrays could be lowered and towed in more quiet waters.
Since none of the methods used in prior art for surfing platforms and sailing vessels obtain the desired effects and advantages in creating and realizing the objectives and advantages described herein, it is felt that a need exists for a unique multi-purpose hull design. A hull 12 could be used as a platform suitable for maintaining a sustained surfing attitude on an ocean swell, see FIGS. 9 and 10. It can also be used as a displacement type sailboat or motor vessel as the air nozzles can reduce wetted surface 27 to obtain greater fuel economy and/or speed in excess of the calculated hull speed.